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Originally Posted by Drum Sport If I want a fat snare sound what do the general characteristics of the drum have to be? deep? please suggest some snare drums. thanks. |
What I've found to help:
- Yes, using a deeper snare will help.
- Don't tension the batter head so high that the drum loses tone and sustain.
- I'm usually not a big fan of two-ply heads on snare drums (altho there are always exceptions, including one of my drums), but often, I'll go with a reverse-dot (coated) head, which I find strengthens (and lowers) the fundamental tone of the drum. Or, I'll go with something like a Remo Fiberskyn head.
- Go with a higher snare wire count, or (paradoxically) a lower snare wire count. A higher count will (obviously) give the drum more "snare sound," which is one way to "fatten" the sound of the drum. On the other hand, I've found that if I cut back to a lower count, like 12-strands, there's more body to the drum's sound (more "head sound" and "shell sound") - I suspect that it has something to do with the smaller set of wires covering less of the resonant head, letting the drum resonate a little bit more freely.
- If you're in the market for a new snare drum, try a wood shell made of something like walnut or mahogany. I've also found that - in my experience, at least - drums made using stave, segment, or single-ply steambent shells, tend to have more "bottom end" to their sound than comparably-sized plywood shells.
- If you're willing to consider a non-standard snare drum diameter, you might want to try a 15" snare. I built my own 5.5x15 maple snare with a Keller shell a while back, and it's a very fat-sounding drum, due in large part to the diameter. EDIT: I hasten to add, tho, that it's quite possible to get a very fat snare drum sound out of a 14" shell. I just wanted to offer an option.
As always, YMMV ("Your Mileage May Vary"), but these are some ideas that I've found helpful.